mary in oakland, california, thanks for holding. you're on with donald barlett and james steele on booktv. >> caller: thank you for taking my call. the african-american community is really conflicted as to what president obama has done to address our economic concerns, and i see your book "time on the cross." does this book give any basis as to why, um, african-americans seem to do the worst during times of economic distress? >> host: mary, i don't think they wrote a week called -- a book called "time on the cross." >> guest: no, this was on the list -- >> host: oh, i apologize, mary. was this your list? >> guest: yeah. >> host: okay. >> guest: i'll explain this. this was a book done by -- let's go back. literature is filled with references to lawyers. let's, you know, let's kill all the lawyers, you know, from shakespeare forward. h.l. mencken, you name it. everybody wants to do in the lawyers, and i'm sympathetic to that. there's some merit there. but the one at the top of my list is not lawyers, it's economists who i think have d